Letter: Guns not at fault for tragedy

I was planning on coining a response to Marti Crowe"s letter. For, I cannot believe she is still trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

Charlie RaneyLeavenworth

To the editor:I was planning on coining a response to Marti Crowe"s letter. For, I cannot believe she is still trying to pull the wool over our eyes. She obviously thinks that you and I do not know the difference between an "immigrant" and an "illegal alien." She made the claim that Mr. Kobach wants immigrants to "move out of our state." To say this is a falsehood is putting it lightly. Maybe next time Marti can find some truth to Crowe about.

However, after last weekend's tragic incident of murder/suicide in K.C. my letter's objectivity has since changed.

During last week's Sunday night football game, Bob Costas felt the need to regurgitate the opinion of Jason Whitlock's on the need for more gun control. As per Mr. Costas's statements, Mr. Whitlock laid claim that with more gun control the type of tragedy that took place last week here in K.C., would and/or could have been avoided. Mr. Costas believes Mr. Whitlock is correct in his argument that this tragedy is the fault of firearms.

It is painfully obvious that both Mr. Costas and Mr. Whitlock forgot, or choose to ignore, the murder case of Nicole and O.J. Simpson. Both cases involved domestic disputes. Both tragedies had a girlfriend, wife, mother being murdered. Both were committed by an athlete (or ex-athlete). However, there was no firearm used in the Simpson murder case, was there? Mr. Whitlock never opined the need for new stricter knife laws, did he? Would Mr. Costas and/or Mr. Whitlock feel better if a baseball bat, knife, golf club, hammer etc... were used instead of a firearm in the tragedy that took place last Saturday? The tragedy is the fact that there was a murder and a suicide, NOT how they were committed and/or by what object.

I have talked with many other citizens who are growing more and more tired of those who, A) want to use these type of tragedies to jump on their soap boxes to spew negativity and/or demand more laws. And, B) want to keep blaming the tool for the fault of the deed. People, It is not the fault of the pencil for a misspelled word, it is not the fault of the spoon or fork if you are over weight, nor is it the fault of the firearm that murders, assaults and suicides exist.

I will close my opinion letter with this quote: "To prohibit a citizen from wearing or carrying a war arm, is an unwarranted restriction upon the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of constitutional privilege." [Wilson v. State, 33 Ark. 557, at 560, 34 Am. Rep. 52, at 54 (1878)]

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